I listen to all these complaints about rudeness and intemperateness, and the opinion that I come to is that there is no polite way of asking somebody: have you considered the possibility that your entire life has been devoted to a delusion? But that's a good question to ask. Of course we should ask that question and of course it's going to offend people.

The first thing about intelligence is skepticism. Being intelligent is not to know everything but to question everything. I wasn't an atheist before, but I always was & still is, a skeptic.

I've noticed people with rigid views tend to get offended more when questioned. Particularly when they have little evidence to support their claim. Blasphemy law is a good example of expected reaction to established rigid religious views where the "rudeness" of merely questioning the doctrine is a punishable crime.

These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.